Originally Posted by jobob
Someone here (who shall not be named ) keeps talking about the Furnace Creek 508.

"C'mon! It'll be fun!" she says.

I have yet to see how ...



Trust me: it is.
November (1999) Newsletter

Sandy rocks at FC 508

Fuel for the furnace: Sandy Kenny tells us Why

(Editor’s note: Sandy is the new MVBC President. On Oct. 9-10 she completed the FC 508, finishing in 41 hours. She was the 2nd woman, and 12th overall. Over half of those starting did not finish.)

But WHY?

Why do YOU ride? Is it for fun? For fitness? For scenery? For good times with friends? For the feel of wind in your face? (Not "wind in your hair," please - wear those helmets religiously!) For most of us, it’s a mix of all of these reasons, and sometimes, none of them - just the sheer pleasure of the ride is enough.

I just got back from an incredible ride - the Furnace Creek 508. It’s an ultramarathon race through Death Valley. The "508" part means that it was - yep - five hundred and eight miles long. "Incredible" is the word I keep using, over and over, to describe my experience. And, of course, whenever I get a chance to talk to folks about it, there are the usual questions: How long did it take? What did you eat? Did you get off the bike? Did you sleep? How did you....?

And then, once all the basic physiologic bases are covered, comes the inevitable question: "But WHY?" Well, I didn’t think all that hard about the "why" of this event while I was planning and training for it, or even while I was doing it. I just knew that it was exactly what I wanted to do. As I sit here, on the "other side" of this race, it seems obvious that that very simple reason is THE only reason that is necessary and sufficient: it was EXACTLY what I wanted to do. Nothing less, nothing more.

I love riding my bike. It doesn’t have to be extremely far, or extremely fast (though sometimes, either or both is fun). I like riding with other people, and alone, and in beautiful places, and in the gym, and to get to work, and to get away to play - and sometimes, I like the simple feeling of cranks turning smoothly at my feet, just because I’m turning the cranks. I had a wonderful time training up for this race. Most of my training was built around stuff that I thought would be fun, anyway. I got some training in at local races. I rode to Portland (and back). I rode out to the coast (and back). I rode to Sisters (and back! whew!), and lots of other places that I might never have gotten to see if I hadn’t had this gigantic goal out there to chase. I got to ride with most of you at one time or another.

I got to have what was probably the neatest ride of my life, going to, around, and back from Crater Lake. Jan Konzack volunteered to take my stuff up for the club’s annual camping trip, and I was made an honorary Wilson, at least at mealtimes (which is a VERY good time to be an honorary Wilson - it is NO coincidence at all that Kelli Cripe and Lori Wilson won the "Camp Cook" awards presented at our October General Meeting).

During the race, I was treated to some awe-inspiring scenery, occasional leg cramps, scorpions and other critters on the roads, endless climbs in 100+ degree heat, and road surfaces that make your average Oregon chip-seal look and feel like the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. And I felt like the luckiest person on the face of the Earth; the whole time, I was struck by the sheer, unshakeable knowledge that I was EXACTLY where I wanted to be, doing EXACTLY what I should be doing, and with EXACTLY the people I wanted and needed to have with me.

My tireless (seemingly) crew was a major inspiration to me - they worked overtime to keep me fed, hydrated, and cool, even when I wasn’t at my charming best. (Yes, I did get cranky - even when you’re having the time of your life, you can lose perspective for a minute or two, here and there....)

The feeling of accomplishment that I got from completing this race is, in a word, incredible. I spent almost a year thinking about this event: how would I attack the hills? Who would I want for crew? What should I eat? In the end, I built a successful race, even though it was incredibly difficult (more than half of the solo riders dropped out).

To find a goal, to accept it, and prepare for it, and then accomplish it - that’s joy! That’s the stuff that life is made of. It doesn’t matter terribly what the goal is, other than that it’s - yep, you guessed it - EXACTLY what you want to do. I remember not too long before I left for Furnace Creek, I heard a news story about the guy who grew the largest pumpkin in the US. Now, you can luck into a pretty big pumpkin, but a 900+ pound pumpkin is no accident. This guy researched how much, and how often, you can force-feed a pumpkin (hey, maybe Martha got her ideas about feeding ME during the race from this guy!) and then he set about to do it. He pumped food and water into the behemoth every 1/2 hour, around the clock, for months. He grew the largest pumpkin in the US. He got to take it to Austria or some such place for an exhibition. Most people would think that that’s all a pretty weird way to spend a summer, but I can completely identify.

Not everyone would want to build a 900 pound pumpkin. And not everyone can, should, or would want to ride the Furnace Creek 508. But we all will sometime, somewhere, somehow, find ourselves face-to-face with a challenge or cause worth taking up. I hope you find your challenge, and that when you do, you find yourself as supported physically and emotionally as the MVBC membership has supported me on my journey, so that you can take up your challenge with confidence, perseverance, and lots of good cheer.<<<<